Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, Vol.

3, 033543 (18 August 2009)

Automated mapping of tropical deforestation and

forest degradation: CLASlite

Gregory P. Asner, David E. Knapp, Aravindh Balaji,

and Guayana Páez-Acosta
Department of Global Ecology, Carnegie Institution for Science, 260 Panama Street,
Stanford, California 94305
gpa@stanford.edu, deknapp@stanford.edu, aravindh@stanford.edu, gpaez@stanford.edu

Abstract. Monitoring deforestation and forest degradation is central to assessing changes in

carbon storage, biodiversity, and many other ecological processes in tropical regions. Satellite
remote sensing is the most accurate and cost-effective way to monitor changes in forest cover
and degradation over large geographic areas, but the tools and methods have been highly
manual and time consuming, often requiring expert knowledge. We present a new user-
friendly, fully automated system called CLASlite, which provides desktop mapping of forest
cover, deforestation and forest disturbance using advanced atmospheric correction and
spectral signal processing approaches with Landsat, SPOT, and many other satellite sensors.
CLASlite runs on a standard Windows-based computer, and can map more than 10,000 km2,
at 30 m spatial resolution, of forest area per hour of processing time. Outputs from CLASlite
include maps of the percentage of live and dead vegetation cover, bare soils and other
substrates, along with quantitative measures of uncertainty in each image pixel. These maps
are then interpreted in terms of forest cover, deforestation and forest disturbance using
automated decision trees. CLASlite output images can be directly input to other remote
sensing programs, geographic information systems (GIS), Google Earth™, or other
visualization systems. Here we provide a detailed description of the CLASlite approach with
example results for deforestation and forest degradation scenarios in Brazil, Peru, and other
tropical forest sites worldwide.
Keywords: ALI, ASTER, deforestation, forest degradation, forest disturbance, Landsat,
logging, MODIS, REDD, satellite monitoring, SPOT, UNFCCC.

1 INTRODUCTION
As the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) moves to
implement the program for Reduced Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) [1, 2], the
scientific community is tasked with providing concrete methodologies to monitor forest cover
and to estimate changes in carbon stocks over time. For REDD to move forward, these
methodologies must be put into operation in a relatively short period of time. In support of
this effort, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change provided Good Practice
Guidelines to assist countries in developing three different tiers of carbon assessment, with
the Tier-I approach based on the most general estimates of national forest cover and generic
forest carbon density values (e.g., tons ha-1), to Tier-III that provides very detailed landscape-
and species-specific carbon stock estimates with regular reassessments [3]. The range of
possible technical approaches is enormous, and the accessibility, applicability and accuracy of
many critical steps remain poorly demonstrated.
At the national level, it is likely that many tropical countries will rely initially on Tier-I
levels of accuracy, yet this approach will provide carbon stock estimates with very large
uncertainties [4]. Evolving the national monitoring capacities to Tier-II and III accuracies will
require improved regional monitoring methods. A major motivation to move from Tier-I to

© 2009 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers [DOI: 10.1117/1.3223675]

Received 26 Jun 2009; accepted 12 Aug 2009; published 18 Aug 2009 [CCC: 19313195/2009/$25.00]
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 Tier-III is the increase in accuracy and transparency of reporting carbon stocks, with the
positive cascading effect of increased investment for carbon sequestration.
To achieve increased monitoring accuracy and transparency, spatially-explicit information
on forest cover change at large scales must be derived from satellites. Global satellite
mapping of forest cover has greatly improved, and may be considered routine for delivering
estimates of deforestation [5, 6]. However, these global mapping approaches currently require
experts to maintain them. The global approaches also often miss millions of small forest
clearings that occur at the few-hectare scale, and they miss most of the forest degradation [the
second "D" in REDD; 7]. Several other higher resolution, regional mapping approaches have
also been developed [8-10], but to our knowledge, none have been designed for and widely
distributed to non-experts outside of the remote sensing community. In response to this gap,
we have developed a regional satellite monitoring tool for both deforestation and forest
disturbance at < 0.1 ha spatial resolution. Here, we define disturbance as a diffuse thinning of
the forest canopy caused by human activities [11]. We further define degradation as the
temporal or spatial persistence of disturbance; extensive high-impact logging or repeated fires
are examples of forest degradation.
We present a new approach, called CLASlite, which allows a non-expert user to quickly
assess the regional distribution of tropical forest cover, deforestation and degradation.
CLASlite is a user-friendly software package specifically designed to support forest
monitoring for REDD. We provide a detailed description of the CLASlite algorithms as well
as examples from Peru, Brazil and other tropical forest regions that demonstrate the steps,
outputs, and common uses of the method.

2 DESIGN REQUIREMENTS
Our overarching goal is to develop a system for rapid mapping of forest cover, deforestation
and disturbance over large geographic regions. From an operational monitoring perspective, it
is important that the method be sufficiently general to accommodate a wide range of tropical
forest conditions. Tropical canopies come in a wide variety of architectures, from stands with
large-statured, interlocking tree crowns to narrow-stemmed, densely foliated bamboo stems.
These architectures affect the spectral signatures measured by spaceborne sensors [12, 13].
Similarly, the spectral reflectance properties of tropical forests are largely driven by species
composition, as many species express variation in chemical and structural characteristics [14,
15]. To generically detect deforestation and disturbance, the method needs to identify changes
in forest canopy cover without being overly sensitive to variation in forest type, architecture
and species composition.
The method must also accommodate a wide range of atmospheric conditions. Tropical
atmospheres are particularly challenging, often containing high water vapor content and haze
(aerosol) from biomass burning and other sources [16, 17]. These atmospheric constituents
cause uncertainty in the spectral signatures measured by spaceborne sensors, which can have
cascading effects on estimates of canopy cover, deforestation and disturbance [18]. The
method must therefore allow for correction of atmospheric effects yet also accommodate a
degree of uncertainty in the composition of the atmosphere at the time of satellite data
acquisition, even pixel to pixel within the image.
The algorithms must work with a wide variety of satellite sensors and imagery. Although a
few satellites, such as the Landsat series, are common and highly accessible
(http://landsat.usgs.gov), a number of new spaceborne sensors have become available,
providing increased frequency of coverage over the tropical forest biome. Given the great
extent of tropical forests, about 10 million km2, along with the heavy cloud cover typically
encountered in these regions [19], a constellation of satellite sensors is needed for operational

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 monitoring. Finally, the method must be highly accessible to non-expert users. From a
technology perspective, accessibility is foremost determined by three factors: (i) automation
of method, (ii) applicability to a standard desktop computer, and (iii) accessibility to entry-
level geospatial analysts or technicians.

3 METHODOLOGICAL HERITAGE
The Carnegie Landsat Analysis System (CLAS) was originally developed as an expert system
for large-scale mapping of tropical forest disturbance, including selective logging [20]. In
initial studies, CLAS was used to map selective logging throughout much of the Brazilian
Amazon, with an estimate of mapping errors of 11-14%. Following its initial use in Brazil,
CLAS was successfully updated to include deforestation, and validated in the Peruvian
Amazon, yielding uncertainties in deforestation and forest disturbance detection of 0.5% and
9.0%, respectively [21]. In addition, CLAS has been successfully tested in lowland to
montane forests of Borneo, Mozambique, Madagascar, and the Hawaiian Islands.
CLASlite builds off several of the core modules within CLAS – modules that facilitate
high-resolution forest cover analysis. The CLASlite approach was redeveloped and
streamlined to increase automation. The key aspects of CLASlite are discussed in the
following section on algorithms. It is the combination of methods, applied in a unique
modeling environment that allows for repeatable, automated solutions to the deforestation and
disturbance mapping problem.

4 CLASLITE ALGORITHMS
CLASlite integrates a series of processes that take raw satellite imagery and produce forest
cover change images : (1) radiometric calibration and atmospheric correction of satellite data;
(2) cloud, water and shadow masking; (3) decomposition of image pixels into fractional
surface covers; and (4-5) classification of the imagery into forest cover, deforestation and
forest disturbance (Fig. 1). The next sections provide a detailed description of these processes,
illustrated with examples taken from analyses of tropical forests in Peru and Brazil.

4.1 Satellite imagery

A wide variety of satellite imagery can be analyzed using CLASlite. Currently, the following
images are supported: Landsat 4 and 5 Thematic Mapper (TM), Landsat 7 Enhanced
Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection
Radiometer (ASTER), Earth Observing-1 Advanced Land Imager (ALI), Satellite pour
l'Observation de la Terre 4 and 5 (SPOT), and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer
(MODIS). Along with the raw imagery, information on geographic location and basic sensor
settings is required, both of which are provided in the satellite metadata often stored in the
image header information or supplied with the raw imagery.

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 Fig. 1. CLASlite version 2.0 processing stream. Major processes are numbered 1-6.

4.2 Calibration and atmospheric correction

CLASlite ingests raw satellite imagery and applies established sensor gains and offsets to
derive exo-atmospheric radiance for each image band. The radiance data are then passed to a
fully automated version of the 6S atmospheric radiative transfer model [22] to derive apparent
surface reflectance for each spectral band (Process 1a-b, Fig. 1). The 6S model requires a
number of inputs which include an estimate of aerosol optical thickness (AOT) and water
vapor. Within CLASlite, these atmospheric parameters are held in geographic look-up tables
derived from the NASA MODIS 1-degree atmospheric products (http://gcmd.nasa.gov/
records/GCMD_MOD08_M3.html). Spatial and temporal co-location of MODIS AOT and
water vapor data with the high resolution satellite imagery is done on an automated basis.

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 CLASlite uses the latest version of 6S (http://6s.ltdri.org/), which supports Landsat-4, 5, and
7, as well as ASTER, ALI, and SPOT. CLASlite does not perform atmospheric correction on
MODIS land imagery because those data are already processed to surface reflectance in the 8-
day composite product (MOD09A1; https://lpdaac. usgs.gov/lpdaac/products/modis_
products_table/surface_reflectance/8_day_l3_global_500m/v5/terra).
Because biomass burning is very common in optical satellite imagery of tropical regions,
we implemented an automated haze correction that runs as a secondary atmosphere-
compensation option for Landsat data in CLASlite (Fig. 2). The empirical method uses the
NIR and SWIR bands (4,5, and 7) to develop a lookup table of average radiance of the visible

Fig. 2. (a) Raw Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) imagery taken over
the Peruvian Amazon in 2002. (b) Same image following atmospheric correction and
haze suppression. Equivalent histogram stretches were applied to both images.

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 bands (1, 2, and 3) for each unique combination of the NIR and SWIR bands. The NIR and
SWIR bands are not as affected by haze as the visible bands, so assigning the average
radiance for bands 1, 2, and 3 homogenizes the haze throughout the image, reducing the
variation of haze between pixels in the image. This method is an improvement over other
haze equalization methods in that it preserves subtle detail between pixels and maintains
spectral integrity among image bands [23].

4.3 Initial image masking

CLASlite automatically masks water bodies such as rivers and lakes, removing them from
subsequent analysis steps (Process 2, Fig. 1). Water masking is achieved by detecting the
unique reflectance properties of water, which is generally characterized by decreasing
reflectance from the blue (~400 nm) to the near infrared (> 800 nm) portions of the spectrum.
Some cloud shadow features are also masked by identifying pixels that appear in the
reflectance image as having negative reflectance. These pixels are typically those that do not
receive direct sunlight.
CLASlite includes an option to mask clouds in the imagery using the thermal band of
Landsat, when this sensor is used (Fig. 1). This option is not available for SPOT or ALI data,
and is not applied to ASTER imagery in the current version of the software. The primary
advantage of masking cloud cover is to decrease the processing time of subsequent steps in
CLASlite. This step does not completely mask out all clouds or pixels partially contaminated
by clouds. Additional cloud and cloud-shadow masking is done after sub-pixel analysis,
described next.

4.4 Sub-pixel analysis

The core process within CLASlite is a sub-model called the AutoMCU (Automated Monte
Carlo Unmixing; Process 3, Fig. 1), which provides quantitative analysis of the fractional or
percentage cover (0-100%) of live and dead vegetation, and bare substrate within each
satellite pixel (e.g., within each 30 x 30 m pixel in a Landsat image) (Fig. 3). The live
vegetation is technically called Photosynthetic Vegetation (PV) because it maintains unique
spectral properties associated with leaf photosynthetic pigments and canopy water content
[24]. The dead or senescent vegetation fraction is termed Non-photosynthetic Vegetation
(NPV), which is expressed in the spectrum as bright surface material with spectral features
associated with plant carbon compounds [reviewed by 25]. Bare substrate is often dominated
by exposed mineral soil, but is secondarily comprised of various rock types [26].
The AutoMCU sub-model is based on a probabilistic algorithm originally developed for
savanna, woodland and shrubland ecosystems [27, 28], which was later modified for
broadleaf tropical forests [20, 29]. The method uses three spectral endmember libraries,
derived from extensive field measurements and hyperspectral satellite imagery, to decompose
each image pixel using the following linear equation:

ρ(λ)pixel = Σ [Ce • ρ(λ)e]+ε = [Cpv • ρ(λ)pv + Cnpv • ρ(λ)npv + Csubstrate • ρ(λ)substrate]+ε (1)

where ρ(λ)e is the reflectance of each land-cover endmember (e) at wavelength λ and ε is an
error term. The land-cover endmembers are PV, NPV and bare substrate. Solving for each
sub-pixel cover fraction (Ce) requires that the satellite observations (ρ(λ)pixel) contain
sufficient spectral information to solve a set of linear equations, each of the form in equation
(1) but at different wavelengths (λ). An additional constraint over the solution to equation (1)
is that the cover fractions within each pixel sum to unity.

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 Fig. 3. Processing stream for the Automated Monte Carlo Unmixing (AutoMCU)
sub-model within CLASlite.

Traditionally, there have been a limited number of spectral signatures of PV, NPV and
bare substrates for tropical regions, yet the AutoMCU technique requires spectral reflectance
libraries [ρpv(λ), ρnpv(λ), and ρsubstrate(λ)] that encompass the common variation in these
spectral signatures. Using field spectroradiometers measuring surface reflectance from 400-
2500 nm, the bare substrate spectral library was collected across a diverse range of soil types,
surface organic matter levels, and moisture conditions (Fig. 3). This library contains spectra
from exposed mineral soils such as oxisols and ultisols, and rocks including granites and
basalts. Spectral collections for NPV included surface litter, senescent grasslands, and
deforestation residues (slash) from a wide range of species and decomposition stages. These
two spectral endmember libraries encompass the common variation in surface materials found

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 throughout tropical forests of Amazonia, Central America, and Hawaii, with statistical
variability well defined.
In contrast to the NPV and bare substrate spectra that can be collected using ground-based
spectrometers, the PV spectra of forest species require overhead viewing conditions. This is
very difficult to achieve in forest canopies reaching 50 m or more in height. Spectral
measurements of individual leaves, stacks of foliage, or partial canopies (e.g., branches)
introduce major errors in spectral mixture models and cannot be used [25, 30]. Therefore, the
canopy spectra were compiled from measurements made using the Earth Observing-1
Hyperion sensor, the first spaceborne hyperspectral sensor for environmental applications
[31]. The PV spectral library was compiled from study areas in the Brazilian and Peruvian
Amazon region, Costa Rica, and the Hawaiian Islands (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4. An example series of EO-1 Hyperion images of humid tropical forests throughout the
Brazilian Amazon. Intact, closed-canopy forest areas were selected for analysis of spatial
variations in forest photosynthetic vegetation (PV; Fig. 3) spectra. Other images used in the
library development include forests in Peru, Costa Rica and Hawaii.

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 The Hyperion spectra were atmospherically corrected to apparent top-of-canopy
reflectance using the ACORN-4 atmospheric correction algorithm for hyperspectral data
(ImSpec Inc., Palmdale, CA USA), and convolved to the optical channels of each satellite
supported in CLASlite. The PV library includes Hyperion spectra collected over intact terra
firme, riparian and floodplain forests, lowland to montane forests, bamboo- and palm-
dominated forests, early to late-stage secondary forest regrowth, and logged forest of varying
years post-harvest. The spectra held in the endmember libraries for the AutoMCU sub-model
represent more than 400,000 field and spaceborne spectrometer observations collected
throughout Central and South American as well as Pacific Island tropical forests.
The AutoMCU iteratively selects a PV, NPV and bare substrate spectrum from each
library, and unmixes the pixel reflectance into constituent cover fractions using equation (1).
The process of random selection is repeated until the solution converges on a mean value for
each surface cover fraction. In the original CLAS [20], the iteration was done dynamically
until a stable standard deviation between successive fractional cover estimates was reached.
Following a series of studies on different tropical forests, we found that 30 iterations per pixel
is usually sufficient to achieve a stable solution based on this Monte Carlo approach, and thus
this value is fixed in CLASlite (Fig. 3).
An advantage of the Monte Carlo approach is that the per-pixel iterations produce a
standard deviation of the estimate for PV, NPV and bare substrate fractions (Fig. 3). These
are output from CLASlite as standard deviation images. In addition, a final analysis of the fit
of the modeled spectrum (right side of eq. 1) to the input spectrum (left side of eq. 1) is
computed for each pixel, leading to a root mean squared error (RMSE) image. Combined, the
standard deviation and RMSE images provide a way to assess the performance of the
AutoMCU on a pixel by pixel basis, allowing the user to identify areas of concern. Such areas
can occur when a vegetation type is not well represented in the spectral libraries, in areas
where inorganic materials are present (e.g., infrastructure), or atmospheric disturbances
remain unmasked from other CLASlite steps (e.g., edges of clouds, severe haze).

4.5 Secondary image masking

After the AutoMCU determines the fractional cover of PV, NPV and bare substrate within
each image pixel, there is a secondary masking and rescaling step (Process 4, Fig. 1). The
masking step applies a user-selected threshold value to the RMSE image derived from the
AutoMCU model. The threshold is one of the few user inputs to CLASlite to allow
customized removal of cloud shadows and other features in the image that cannot be
adequately modeled from the core PV, NPV and bare substrate spectral libraries. These
features can include water, wetlands, or cloudy pixels that did not meet the preliminary
masking criteria applied prior to the AutoMCU step. This second masking step improves the
accuracy of the fractional cover estimates of the pixels that are processed with the AutoMCU
by preventing contaminated pixels from being included in the statistics used in a rescaling
step described below.
AutoMCU works best with hyperspectral imagery [28]. With the smaller number of
spectral bands available in Landsat, SPOT and other multispectral imagery, results from
multispectral AutoMCU can be improved by scaling them so that the mean PV fraction of
forested areas (> 80% PV) matches that of areas with > 80% forest as defined in the
timeseries NASA Vegetation Continuous Fields Tree Cover product (VCF) data
(http://glcf.umiacs.umd.edu/data/vcf/) [6, 32]. By finding the difference in the mean
AutoMCU PV value for pixels with > 80% PV, and comparing it to coincident areas in the
VCF data (Fig. 5), we apply an offset to the AutoMCU PV data so that the mean of the
distributions of the coincident forested pixels from VCF and the CLASlite image are equal.
The NPV and bare substrate fractions are adjusted accordingly so that the sum of fractional

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 covers remains close to 1.0 or 100%. By leveraging the coarse resolution data from MODIS
to improve the AutoMCU results from CLASlite, a more consistent set of fractional cover
images can be produced, making change detection more reliable.

Fig. 5. Example of automatically colocating CLASlite imagery - here, Landsat 7 ETM -

with the MODIS VCF product (red 1 x 1 km pixels). The VCF maps are held in a
geographic database that is embedded in CLASlite; the VCF maps are updated annually via
the internet (http://claslite.ciw.edu).

4.6 Deforestation and disturbance mapping (multi-image mode)

CLASlite includes the fully automated capability to detect change between a timeseries
images taken of the same geographic area over time (Process 5, Fig. 1). Multi-image analysis
is the most accurate approach for detection of forest loss (deforestation), gain (secondary
regrowth) or degradation (areas of persistent forest disturbance). The following expressions
were derived from extensive field testing and validation to identify disturbance [20, 21]. For
this decision logic, the subscripts 0 and 1 indicate changes from one year to the next.

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 Deforestation (eq. 2):
(PV0 > 60%) AND
((-100% < PV1-PV0 < -40%) and (NPV1-NPV0 > 4%)) OR
((NPV0 < 30% and S0 < 15%) and (PV1 < 80% and NPV1 > 20% and S1 > 0%) and
(PV1-PV0 < -9% and NPV1-NPV0 > 15% and S1-S0 > -99.9%))

Forest disturbance (eq. 3):

(PV1-PV0 > -40%) AND
(PV0 > 80% and NPV0 < 25% and S0 < 15%) AND
(PV1 < 85% and NPV1 > 15% and S1 < 7%) AND
((PV1-PV0 < -6% and 7% < NPV1-NPV0 < 14% and S1-S0 > -1%) or
(PV1-PV0 < -7% and NPV1-NPV0 > 13% and S1-S0 < -1%))

4.6 Forest cover analysis (single-image mode)

Although it is preferable to use at least two consecutive (< 1 year apart) images to detect
deforestation and forest disturbance, it is possible to map forest canopy cover using single
images in CLASlite (Process 6, Fig. 1). These forest cover images often indicate areas of past
clear-cutting and disturbance. Based on extensive testing and field-based validation, the
following decision tree was developed to convert the single-image AutoMCU results to an
estimate of forest cover.

Large forest clearings (eq. 4):

PV < 56%

Small forest clearings (eq. 5):

56% < PV < 80% and
14% < NPV < 34% and 0% < Bare < 17% OR
PV < 80% and not already identified as a clearing

4.7 Technical limitations

While the CLASlite program alone does not distinguish different types of disturbance
(anthropogenic vs. natural; logged vs. fire scars), it allows the user to rapidly classify the total
disturbance at high spatial resolution in a highly automated way. Outputs from CLASlite,
particularly the disturbance maps, usually require additional analysis in order to interpret
them as specific types of disturbance. In practice, the outputs from CLASlite are often best
used in GIS or similar approaches to integrate multiple data sources for large-scale thematic
mapping.

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 5 CASE STUDIES

5.1 Forest cover in the Peruvian Amazon

The following case studies demonstrate the CLASlite approach using both single- and multi-
image analysis techniques. These studies also highlight several critical issues relating forest
cover monitoring to deforestation and forest degradation analysis and tracking. The first
example uses Landsat 7 ETM+ imagery collected over a 900 km2 portion of the Peruvian
Amazon. The study area shown in Fig. 2 neighbors the town of Pulcallpa, Peru, located about
125 km west of the Brazilian border in lowland tropical forest. The area includes recent
deforestation associated with the expansion of cattle ranching and crop agriculture. The
Landsat image was collected on July 9, 2002.
The AutoMCU was run on the calibrated reflectance image, yielding the results shown in
Fig. 6. Intact forest is dominated by high PV fractions (90-98%; green colors), low NPV (2-

Fig. 6. Typical output from the AutoMCU sub-model run on the imagery shown in Fig. 2b.
In each image pixel, the fractions of PV, NPV and bare substrate are expressed in
percentages (0-100%). The areas in black include rivers, lakes, clouds and cloud shadows
masked via the RMSE analysis immediately following the AutoMCU.

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 10%; blues), and very low bare substrate (~ 0%). A road and a large number of deforested
areas are readily visible in the western portion of the image. Both the road and many of the
clearings are dominated by high bare substrate fractions (> 50%; reds), whereas other
clearings are predominantly covered with NPV (> 50%; blues), which is predominantly dry
pasture grass. All clearings display the prototypical reticular shape caused by humans.
Riparian zones show areas of high canopy cover and bare substrate (yellow colors). These
areas are seasonally disturbed by flood waters, which remove much of the smaller standing
vegetation and most of the surface litter, leaving a riverine mosaic of recent canopy growth
(dominated by bamboo) and a bare mineral soil surface. In contrast, drier areas within the
river itself are dominated by bare sands and rocks, as shown as high bare substrate fractions
in red colors.
The uncertainty images for each fractional cover estimate are shown in Fig. 7, along with
the RMSE image indicating the overall fit between each modeled and measured spectrum in
the dataset. The standard deviation (s.d.) images for PV, NPV and bare substrate indicate
areas of relatively low to high uncertainty in the Monte Carlo unmixing. PV s.d. are low

Fig. 7. AutoMCU output images of the standard deviation (s.d.) of photosynthetic vegetation
(PV), non-photosynthetic vegetation (NPV), and bare substrate (Bare). The final fit of the
modeled spectrum to the measured spectrum in each pixel is reported in a root mean square
error (RMSE) image.

(< 5%) to high (> 10%) in the forested and cleared areas, respectively. NPV follows a similar
pattern, although uncertainty in this cover fraction is slightly higher (~ 5-8%) in forested

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 areas. The highest s.d. among NPV and bare substrate are found in the seasonally disturbed
riparian areas, where materials likely exhibit intimate mixtures of all three materials with non-
linear mixing and thus emergent spectral properties [33]. The RMSE image shows the
geographic areas of relatively high overall uncertainty in the modeling; for example, the
riparian corridor has the largest errors approaching 10%. In contrast, deforested areas show
very low error in the AutoMCU results, often only 1-2%. Together, these images provide a
quantitative, spatially explicit means to assess uncertainty in the fractional cover estimates
resulting from CLASlite.
The final step in this single-image analysis utilizes the decision tree (eqs. 4-5) described
earlier to estimate forest canopy cover and non-forest cover throughout the region (Fig. 8). A
simple map such as this one can then be used to calculate forest extent. In this 900 km2
region of the Peruvian Amazon, the total forest cover is 774.3 km2. Image masking results are
also reported, as shown in grey areas, here indicating water bodies, clouds and cloud
shadows.

Fig. 8. Automated forest cover mapping from single-image analysis in CLASlite. Green
areas are forest cover; orange areas are non-forest cover; grey areas are water bodies, clouds
and cloud shadows masked during analysis.

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 Field visits to this area of Peru indicated false-positive and false-negative detection rates
of less than 1% for deforested and forested lands [G.P. Asner, unpub. data; 21]. Furthermore,
we exported this image to ArcGIS (ESRI Inc., Redlands, CA USA) and calculated the
percentage of forest clearings at different distances from the main road running north-south in
the left side of the image (Fig. 8). The forest cover image indicated that 73% and 94% of all
clearings occurred within 5 km and 10 km of the road, respectively, corroborating recent
studies suggesting that road building is a key factor determining deforestation patterns in
Amazonia [34]. Other analyses can be readily applied to the CLASlite imagery, either at the
sub-pixel level (Fig. 6) or regional scale (Fig. 8), to study patterns and rates of forest loss,
recovery, and degradation as discussed in the next example.

5.2 Selective logging in the Brazilian Amazon

Our second case study focuses on a timeseries analysis of deforestation and forest disturbance
in a 3,000 km2 region of the eastern Brazilian Amazon. The area is located approximately 250
km south of the city of Belém, Brazil, in the State of Pará. The area is a known hotspot for
timber extraction, which was underway in this region in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The
area was under intense field study at the time, with reports indicating that different logging
intensities (m3 wood ha-1) and methods (conventional vs. reduced-impact) resulted in different
levels of canopy damage and dead vegetation production [29, 35, 36].
We compiled four Landsat 7 ETM+ images collected on July 13, 1999, July 31, 2000,
August 3, 2001, and September 7, 2002. The images were co-registered to less than one pixel
RMS error using the Environment for Visualizing Images (ENVI, ITT Inc., Boulder, CO
USA), and were input into CLASlite as raw data values. Radiance calibration, atmospheric
correction, and Monte Carlo unmixing were automatically performed on the four images. The
single-image decision tree analysis (eqs. 4-5) was then run on each image independently to
highlight areas of forest and non-forest cover each year of observation. The multi-image
analysis (eqs. 2-3) was then run again on the combined image timeseries to isolate forest
clear-cutting (deforestation) from the diffuse disturbances that occurred throughout the study
period.
Single-image analysis indicated that forest cover changes were substantial during the
period 1999 to 2002 (Fig. 9). The total forest cover was 2609.7 km2 in 1999. Forest area was
2518.1 km2 by 2002, representing a net decrease of 83.6 km2 or 3.5%. From a net forest cover
perspective, this loss is considered fairly large since it occurred in just a three year period
[37]. However, multi-image analysis, which provides a means to track gross changes in forest
cover, and which can separate deforestation events from forest disturbance, provided a
different perspective. The gross rate of deforestation was 10.4, 11.1 and 29.2 km2 yr-1 in
1999-2000, 2000-2001 and 2001-2002, respectively (Fig. 10a). However, the gross rate of
forest disturbance was far larger: 26.2, 31.2 and 38.6 km2 yr-1 (Fig. 10b). Combined, the gross
rate of deforestation and disturbance was 146.7 km2 or a 5.7% over the three-year period.
This difference between the net (3.5%) and gross (5.7%) loss of forest cover is typically
caused either by regrowth of secondary forest on deforested lands or by the reestablishment of
leaf cover in disturbed forest canopies. Our previous work demonstrated that more than 98%
of the forest disturbance in this area resulted from selective logging [29], and that this region
underwent almost no secondary forest regrowth between 1999 and 2002. In contrast, leaf
cover rapidly returned in areas that underwent disturbance from selective logging. Moreover,
although the leaf cover returned within two years following timber harvests [29, 35, 38], the
forest volume did not – it takes as much as 50-80 years for forest biomass to return to original
pre-logging levels [39, 40]. Therefore, the observed recovery of vegetation leaf cover
following logging is the principal cause of the “apparent” low net rates of forest loss
throughout the region. From a forest carbon monitoring perspective, the gross rate of canopy
damage is far more important than the net rate because gross rates indicate the initial, largest

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 carbon losses caused by either deforestation (clear-cutting) and disturbances such as selective
logging.

Fig. 9. Automated CLASlite analysis of forest (green) and non-forest (orange) cover
throughout a 3,000 km2 region of the eastern Brazilian Amazon.

From a UNFCCC REDD monitoring perspective, the consequences of tracking net versus
gross rates of deforestation and disturbance on carbon loss estimates are enormous. For
example, assuming an average forest aboveground carbon density of 200 Mg C ha-1 (IPCC
2006), this region underwent a net aboveground carbon loss of 1.83 Tg C (1 Tg = 1 million
metric tons) in three years (3.5% of 2607 km2 multiplied by 200 Mg C ha-1). Using an
analysis of gross forest losses, which accounts for losses from both deforestation and
disturbance such as selective logging, the total aboveground carbon emitted was 2.93 Tg C, a
full 60% increase in carbon emission estimates from the same region over the same period.
Although the amount of carbon lost per hectare by logging is far lower than by deforestation,
in this case, the logging was far more widespread, resulting in a large regional-scale loss of
carbon from the system. Focusing on deforestation alone or net rates of change is clearly
inferior to using gross rates of deforestation and forest disturbance. Finally, the persistence of

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 Fig. 10. Automated CLASlite analysis of deforestation and forest degradation in a 3,000
km2 region of the eastern Brazilian Amazon. Orange indicates forest loss and disturbance
from 1999 to 2000, green from 2000 to 2001, and grey from 2001-2002.

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 logging in this region of the Brazilian Amazon is so great that one can probably apply the
descriptor “degradation” to this area. Other forms of degradation not represented in this
particular example, but which are common in tropical forest areas exposed to logging, include
fire, which results in even greater canopy losses and thus carbon emissions to the atmosphere
[41, 42].

5.3 Prospects for global forest cover mapping

The accuracy and precision of CLASlite or any method for mapping forest cover is dependent
upon the selection of satellite data. One major problem among past studies is that many
classification methods are highly sensitive to sensor specifications, particularly spectral
resolution and radiometric calibration. Atmospheric conditions are another confounding
factor affecting classification results. Any high-resolution (< 30 m) mapping approach for
global applications must inherently support a suite of sensors that can be used to piece
together large-area coverage of forests. This is particularly true in humid tropical regions
where cloud cover is persistent, and so mosaicking of cloud-free data must use various
sensors, each with varying multi-spectral resolution and radiometric calibration.
CLASlite addresses many of these issues. CLASlite makes multi-image, multi-sensor
mosaicking possible because the AutoMCU sub-model is fully probabilistic, with its spectral
libraries inherently accommodating differences in spectral and radiometric image properties
and variable effects of changing atmospheric conditions between images. To illustrate the
image-to-image stability of the method, we show AutoMCU output for the Cauaxi study
region in Brazil using Landsat 7 (30 m), SPOT-4 (20 m), and MODIS (500 m) data (Fig. 11).

Fig. 11. Fractional PV, NPV and bare substrate cover from the AutoMCU sub-model of
CLASlite. These example results using Landsat 7 ETM+, SPOT-4 and MODIS data cover
the same study area shown in Figs. 9-10.

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 It is obvious that forest clearings, selective logging areas, roads, and the composition of
PV, NPV and bare substrate are nearly identical using Landsat or SPOT imagery. Our
experience is similar with ASTER and ALI data as well. With MODIS, only the larger (> 25
ha) forest clearings are readily mapped, and no logging is apparent in the spectrally unmixed
MODIS imagery. This represents a fundamental limitation in using global sensors with 500 m
(or lower) spatial resolution: they are inappropriate for forest disturbance and thus for most
forest degradation monitoring. Despite the limits of global sensors, CLASlite provides a
robust way to incorporate imagery from multiple sources, which in the long run, allows for
mosaicking of otherwise incompatible images for large-area deforestation and disturbance
mapping. This is an emergent property of the CLASlite approach that ultimately makes
global-scale, high-resolution mapping of tropical forest possible.
The forests of Amazonia represent more than 40% of the global humid tropical forest
biome [37], yet other forest types occur in the tropics, and thus we have tested CLASlite on a
wide range of canopies found around the world. Fig. 12 provides example imagery from
Borneo, Madagascar, the Hawaiian Islands and Mozambique to indicate the applicability of
CLASlite to map a wide range of forest types and conditions. Since the AutoMCU output is
core to the process, and because this step occurs after radiometric calibration, atmospheric
compensation and (most) masking steps, we show the fractional cover results here for visual
comparison. Fig. 12a shows large-scale clearing of mesic “spiny” forests of southern
Madagascar, where fuel wood and other subsistent uses are systematically removing the
forest

Fig. 12. Fractional PV, NPV and bare substrate cover for four distinct tropical forest
regions: (A) mesic spiny forests in Madagascar, (B) lowland dry tropical forest in
Mozambique; (C) Montane rain forests in Borneo; and (D) lowland to sub-montane
Hawaiian rain forests.

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 cover. Fig. 12b shows diffuse small-landholder clearings emanating from an unpaved single-
lane road in Mozambique. Fig. 12c shows a web of roads and skid-trails caused by logging
activities in montane rain forests of Borneo. Fig. 12d indicates long-term forest cover losses
in lowland to montane rain forest in Hawaii. Despite the vast differences in forest type and
composition of each of these 2,000 km2 examples, the output remains highly comparable
across various types of satellite sensors. By reducing the radiometric data to fractional cover
results (using a probabilistic method with other steps for ensuring compatibility), the
condition and state of very different forests can be directly assessed and compared anywhere
in the world. This is the ultimate goal of CLASlite for tropical forest monitoring.

6 VALIDATION
CLASlite and its predecessor CLAS have been through a number of validation exercises,
summarized in Table 1. As mentioned earlier, the deforestation and forest disturbance results
were validated over large geographic areas in Brazil and Peru [20, 21]. The Brazil studies
included a series of field projects to comprehensively validate fractional cover output from
the AutoMCU sub-model, which remains unchanged in CLASlite, as well as forest
disturbance maps generated from the decision trees that follow the AutoMCU step [29, 38,
43]. The Peru validation was carried out by an independent Peruvian organization. Both
deforestation and forest disturbance were assessed and found to be highly accurate [21]. Other
AutoMCU validation studies were conducted in Bolivia [44], Mozambique [45], and the
United States [46].

Table 1. Summary of validation studies using CLAS, CLASlite and its sub-models.

Country Ecoregion Algorithm Uncertainty Reference

Brazil Amazon forests CLAS logging 11-14% [20]
Peru Amazon forests CLAS deforestation 0.5% and [21]
and disturbance 9.5%
Brazil Amazon forests CLAS disturbance ~4% [29]
Bolivia Amazon forests AutoMCU < 10% [44]
Mozambique Dry sub-tropical AutoMCU 3-6% [45]
forests
United States Southwestern AutoMCU < 20% [46]
woodlands
United States Hawaiian forests CLASlite v.2 2.5% Unpub. data
Peru Amazon forests CLASlite v.2 3-13% Unpub. data
Indonesia Borneo forests CLASlite v.2 4% Unpub. data

At the time of this writing, the CLASlite v.2 user base consists of 45 federal, non-
government and academic organizations in seven countries. Their work with CLASlite
involves validation exercises, and although there are no published reports available at this
time, the results continue to look encouraging. While these activities continue, we are also
validating forest cover, deforestation and disturbance maps produced by CLASlite. In the
Hawaiian Islands, we completed a 1,040,900 ha analysis. Using field surveys and high-
resolution aerial imagery, we calculated a 2.5% uncertainty (81% false negatives; 19% false
positives) in forest cover. In the southern Peruvian Amazon, we used CLASlite to map
deforestation and disturbance over a 4.2 million ha area with estimated errors of 3% and 13%,
respectively (Table 1). Finally, throughout Borneo (Indonesia), we used high-resolution
GeoEye satellite imagery to evaluate CLASlite results based on Landsat 7 ETM+ data. This
yielded an estimated uncertainty in forest cover of 4%. These and other validation studies and
their results will be reported in forthcoming papers.

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 7 CONCLUSIONS
We presented an integrated analysis environment to support rapid regional-scale mapping of
tropical forests using a variety of common satellite sensors. CLASlite is operationally robust
in that image preparation, atmospheric correction, cloud-water masking, and AutoMCU
spectral mixture model work together seamlessly to provide fractional cover estimates of live
and dead vegetation as well as bare substrates. The single- and multi-image decision trees
provide further analysis to reduce the image results to simple maps of forest cover,
deforestation and disturbance. The overall approach requires very little training and thus it
can be used by non-experts tasked with tropical forest mapping and monitoring. CLASlite can
be incorporated into larger forest mapping efforts at the national level. In this way, the
method directly supports forest monitoring efforts for the UNFCCC REDD program.
However, the need for monitoring deforestation and forest disturbance goes far beyond
carbon and REDD: conservation and management efforts require high-resolution mapping to
support policies intended to protect and promote the sustainability of ecosystems and the
services they provide as well as global biodiversity.

Acknowledgments

We thank L. Secada for helpful testing of and suggestions for the CLASlite software. We
thank the subject editor and two anonymous reviewers for comments on the manuscript.
CLASlite is owned by the Carnegie Institution for Science. Carnegie is currently
disseminating software licenses to non-commercial government, non-government and
academic organizations in the Andes-Amazon countries. We thank the Gordon and Betty
Moore Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for supporting
the development, application and dissemination of CLASlite.

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